![]() ![]() A while back, Shane and I mused over the comparative lack of genuinely bad seventh gen racers, working under the assumption that the use of modern development engines somewhat ensures an acceptable standard. Take Need For Speed ’s gritty concrete jungle, mix it in with Split/Second ’s track-mangling shortcut possibilities, add Burnout ’s nitrous-fuelled, risk ‘n’ reward points system and what you’re left with, inevitably, is an instant-classic of the racing genre, right? Oddly, no. ![]() Players can still find room in their hearts and their collections for arcade racers, they just don’t want bad ones like Unbounded. That’s debatable, with Need For Speed enjoying a prolonged period of success, and there’s still lots of love for older racers in the retro community. Namco have since seemingly retired the series, perhaps mistaking a lack of commercial enthusiasm for arcade racers having had their day. Rather than trailblazing new ideas, it made the same mistakes as the rebooted Medal of Honor : shamelessly aping the games that once looked to it for inspiration, and highlighting how far behind the curve it suddenly found itself. Instead, it would prove its nadir, the final nail in the Ridge Racer brand’s coffin. ![]() The clumsily-monikered Unbounded was intended to mark a reinvention for the series. It wasn’t as though the series had its arcade racing crown snatched from it during this period more that Namco seemed uninterested in even contesting it. All three were reasonable, but not especially memorable. Starting with Ridge Racer V, a sequence of numbered instalments served as tech showpieces for the PlayStation 2, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 launches respectively. Four increasingly superlative efforts lit up the original PlayStation, before a peculiar, abrupt shift in philosophy signalled the beginnings of the end. Oh Ridge Racer, what happened? It didn’t seem so long ago that Namco’s arcade racer was on top of the gaming world. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |